smh
Well-Known Member
Ok folks.
I haven't been doing this all that long, but I notice that at least 50% of the questions/discussions on this board have to do with how to get a sweet, carbonated cider. Everyone wants it the easy way. Well, there really isn't one. It comes down to biology. I've written this for a beginner, but this can be useful for anyone. I also haven't listed the basics of making cider, there's lots of wikis/recipies/threads out there for that.
Yeast+sugar (&nutrients, water)=alcohol+carbon dioxide (CO2)
It really is that simple. The complexity is that yeast will eat all the sugar in the solution if the proper conditions (i.e. enough nutrients) are met for long enough. This is, unless, you have so much sugar in the solution that the yeast make enough alcohol and sit in it long enough to kill themselves. This is measured by the attenuation of the yeast. Under MOST conditions that cider makers are looking for, this upper alcohol limit won't be exceeded. Some yeasts go dryer than others, look around, but essentially any will ferment to dryness under conditions that cider makers are under.
Make sure you TAKE GRAVITY READINGS. You need these for everything throughout this process. There are Lots of forums/stickies/wikis on this elsewhere.
The second problem is the CO2. Usually it just bubbles away and is lost during fermentation and bottling etc etc. So you have to capture that somehow in the bottle. (I will ignore you keggers out there, life is simpler when you can force the CO2 into solution)
So, what is one to do? You want both sugar left over and CO2 in solution inside of a bottle. No, there isn't an easy answer, but there are a few options:
1) Backsweeten and KILL
a) Allow the yeast to eat all of the sugar and give you a "dry" cider that is still (i.e. not sparkling--or not much anyway). TAKE GRAVITY READINGS--you want them to be the same 3 times taken 3 days apart to know you're really at dryness. Many people actually like this more than they think they will. Give it a try.
b) Add sugar until you think it tastes good.
Err on the low side people. It seems to taste sweeter after it sits in the bottle awhile. Yes, you can use honey, brown sugar, white sugar, maple syrup, basically whatever you want. Some will carb the bottles faster than others depending how much the yeast like it.
c) Put it in a bottle.
This is where it can get dangerous. Yeast are a hearty bunch, so up to this point you have to assume that they're still alive and present, just resting. They will start to make more CO2 and pressurizes your bottles with the sugar you add. This is a good thing, if you want a sparkling cider. You do not want your bottles to blow up all over your house/garage/face. So you've got to stop this somehow. When do you stop it? When its carbonated, silly. You have to taste it to know. DON'T continue to the next step if the bottle foams over when you open it, you waited too long and the bottle may blow up with heat. You'll have to pop all the tops, hope you don't lose too much CO2 and recap before THE KILL.
d) KILL the yeast. Probably the simplest, but more labour intensive, is to pasteurize in the bottles. There is a sticky for this READ IT, it's great! This is the method I prefer. Some say that you can also do it in the dishwasher. You probably could, except that my water doesn't get hot enough. Yours might not either, so use caution.
2) Backsweeten the fancy way
This is basically the same as (1). The difference is that you use something that tastes sweet to you, but that yeast can't eat. These include xylitol, sucralose and various other sugar alcohols. Again, add to dry cider until it tastes good. Then you want to "prime" your cider with sugar that the yeast can eat and make your CO2. Again, there are lots of forums on this. Just search for priming cider. It takes a little math, but you can do it! The advantage here is that you add just enough sugar to get the level of carbonation you want, without having to worry about the bottles blowing up or pasteurizing. I don't like artificial sweeteners, so I don't do this. If I didn't dislike them so much, I think this would be the easiest way.
3) Cold Crash
I haven't done this method, because I just don't have fridge space. The idea is once your cider ferments to the point where you like it (i.e. don't let it go "dry") you can stop the fermentation by forcing the yeast to flocculate. You do this by racking your cider into a new carboy, then chilling it in the fridge (4 degrees Celsius is probably a safe bet). Then after a week or more, you rack it again. The idea is to get as much yeast out as you can. Then you can bottle, and let it carbonate at room temperature with what little yeast remains. When it gets to the carbonation level you like (TASTE it), put it back into the fridge. Yes, this takes a lot of space and is why I don't do it. Some will say that you don't need to refrigerate at this point, but I'm too nervous of bottle bombs to do this.
4) Keeving
I have also never done this, its seems too complicated for my liking. Check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/french-style-cider-239623/
and this PDF: http://www.cider.org.uk/keeving.pdf
Basically, you do a natural fermentation and add calcium chloride and pectin methylesterase (PME) enzyme. This causes a bunch of stuff in the cider to gel and stick to the yeast and nutrients. Then you rack off the juice and what little yeast/nutrient remains can carbonate the bottles. This is a really slow process and is the basis for famous Normandy ciders. Remember, they've been doing it for MANY years with more consistent conditions than you will get at home. Let's class this as an "advanced" technique.
5) Sufites
Many people suggest using sulfites to stop ferments. Yes, you can add 1 campden tablet and 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon of cider and kill the yeast either before it gets too dry, or a couple of days before backsweetening. The problem? The yeasties are dead, so you can't carbonate naturally once it's in the bottle. Keggers are fine here
6) Let it ferment to a given sweetness and bottle.
You rely on the remaining sugar to carbonate. This is a craps shoot since this will likely go to dryness and explode in the bottles. No one can tell you accurately what SG to go to before you bottle and avoid having them overcarb and blow up. There are WAY too many variables. I do not suggest doing this at all.
So are there compromises? Of course. This is just meant as a starting point and are the most controllable/common methods suggested on this forum. When you've decided which method seems best, search other threads and ask questions. There is a ton of experience here and many are willing to help.
One note of caution:
While your bottles are carbing, do yourself a favour and keep it away from small children and pets. If they do blow you don't want any injuries. I put a towel over them just in case. You don't have to be afraid, just be cautious.
I haven't been doing this all that long, but I notice that at least 50% of the questions/discussions on this board have to do with how to get a sweet, carbonated cider. Everyone wants it the easy way. Well, there really isn't one. It comes down to biology. I've written this for a beginner, but this can be useful for anyone. I also haven't listed the basics of making cider, there's lots of wikis/recipies/threads out there for that.
Yeast+sugar (&nutrients, water)=alcohol+carbon dioxide (CO2)
It really is that simple. The complexity is that yeast will eat all the sugar in the solution if the proper conditions (i.e. enough nutrients) are met for long enough. This is, unless, you have so much sugar in the solution that the yeast make enough alcohol and sit in it long enough to kill themselves. This is measured by the attenuation of the yeast. Under MOST conditions that cider makers are looking for, this upper alcohol limit won't be exceeded. Some yeasts go dryer than others, look around, but essentially any will ferment to dryness under conditions that cider makers are under.
Make sure you TAKE GRAVITY READINGS. You need these for everything throughout this process. There are Lots of forums/stickies/wikis on this elsewhere.
The second problem is the CO2. Usually it just bubbles away and is lost during fermentation and bottling etc etc. So you have to capture that somehow in the bottle. (I will ignore you keggers out there, life is simpler when you can force the CO2 into solution)
So, what is one to do? You want both sugar left over and CO2 in solution inside of a bottle. No, there isn't an easy answer, but there are a few options:
1) Backsweeten and KILL
a) Allow the yeast to eat all of the sugar and give you a "dry" cider that is still (i.e. not sparkling--or not much anyway). TAKE GRAVITY READINGS--you want them to be the same 3 times taken 3 days apart to know you're really at dryness. Many people actually like this more than they think they will. Give it a try.
b) Add sugar until you think it tastes good.
Err on the low side people. It seems to taste sweeter after it sits in the bottle awhile. Yes, you can use honey, brown sugar, white sugar, maple syrup, basically whatever you want. Some will carb the bottles faster than others depending how much the yeast like it.
c) Put it in a bottle.
This is where it can get dangerous. Yeast are a hearty bunch, so up to this point you have to assume that they're still alive and present, just resting. They will start to make more CO2 and pressurizes your bottles with the sugar you add. This is a good thing, if you want a sparkling cider. You do not want your bottles to blow up all over your house/garage/face. So you've got to stop this somehow. When do you stop it? When its carbonated, silly. You have to taste it to know. DON'T continue to the next step if the bottle foams over when you open it, you waited too long and the bottle may blow up with heat. You'll have to pop all the tops, hope you don't lose too much CO2 and recap before THE KILL.
d) KILL the yeast. Probably the simplest, but more labour intensive, is to pasteurize in the bottles. There is a sticky for this READ IT, it's great! This is the method I prefer. Some say that you can also do it in the dishwasher. You probably could, except that my water doesn't get hot enough. Yours might not either, so use caution.
2) Backsweeten the fancy way
This is basically the same as (1). The difference is that you use something that tastes sweet to you, but that yeast can't eat. These include xylitol, sucralose and various other sugar alcohols. Again, add to dry cider until it tastes good. Then you want to "prime" your cider with sugar that the yeast can eat and make your CO2. Again, there are lots of forums on this. Just search for priming cider. It takes a little math, but you can do it! The advantage here is that you add just enough sugar to get the level of carbonation you want, without having to worry about the bottles blowing up or pasteurizing. I don't like artificial sweeteners, so I don't do this. If I didn't dislike them so much, I think this would be the easiest way.
3) Cold Crash
I haven't done this method, because I just don't have fridge space. The idea is once your cider ferments to the point where you like it (i.e. don't let it go "dry") you can stop the fermentation by forcing the yeast to flocculate. You do this by racking your cider into a new carboy, then chilling it in the fridge (4 degrees Celsius is probably a safe bet). Then after a week or more, you rack it again. The idea is to get as much yeast out as you can. Then you can bottle, and let it carbonate at room temperature with what little yeast remains. When it gets to the carbonation level you like (TASTE it), put it back into the fridge. Yes, this takes a lot of space and is why I don't do it. Some will say that you don't need to refrigerate at this point, but I'm too nervous of bottle bombs to do this.
4) Keeving
I have also never done this, its seems too complicated for my liking. Check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/french-style-cider-239623/
and this PDF: http://www.cider.org.uk/keeving.pdf
Basically, you do a natural fermentation and add calcium chloride and pectin methylesterase (PME) enzyme. This causes a bunch of stuff in the cider to gel and stick to the yeast and nutrients. Then you rack off the juice and what little yeast/nutrient remains can carbonate the bottles. This is a really slow process and is the basis for famous Normandy ciders. Remember, they've been doing it for MANY years with more consistent conditions than you will get at home. Let's class this as an "advanced" technique.
5) Sufites
Many people suggest using sulfites to stop ferments. Yes, you can add 1 campden tablet and 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate per gallon of cider and kill the yeast either before it gets too dry, or a couple of days before backsweetening. The problem? The yeasties are dead, so you can't carbonate naturally once it's in the bottle. Keggers are fine here
6) Let it ferment to a given sweetness and bottle.
You rely on the remaining sugar to carbonate. This is a craps shoot since this will likely go to dryness and explode in the bottles. No one can tell you accurately what SG to go to before you bottle and avoid having them overcarb and blow up. There are WAY too many variables. I do not suggest doing this at all.
So are there compromises? Of course. This is just meant as a starting point and are the most controllable/common methods suggested on this forum. When you've decided which method seems best, search other threads and ask questions. There is a ton of experience here and many are willing to help.
One note of caution:
While your bottles are carbing, do yourself a favour and keep it away from small children and pets. If they do blow you don't want any injuries. I put a towel over them just in case. You don't have to be afraid, just be cautious.
